06.05.04
Takenokonosato Kuri
This candy was expertly picked out by Alessar (using a method of random chance and aesthetic composition I think) so y’all can get on his case if it sucks. Hey, I took the Nama Ume Ame blame and I think that’s going to last me quite a while yet. If you happen to have scrolled across the pic you might have discovered that it is called “BeigePopeHatCandy” and that’s only because all of us still can not read Japanese. And because the candy looks like a cross between a pine cone and a pope hat. Badmovie, the most linguistically talented of the Guinea Pigs, recognized “kuri” as the word for chestnut (only because it wasn’t the word for squirrel. Don’t ask) which explains the pinecone. Or not. Do chestnut trees have pinecones? Maybe they actually are stylized pope hats after all. Hard to tell, really.
My one disappointment with this candy is that I expected both a pinecone candy and a chestnut looking candy to be in the box. ‘Tis not so, only the pinecone pope hat candies reside inside the foil packet. Other than that, I’d have given this a solid 4 wasabi pea rating. Definitely. Alessar is with me on this too. Unfortunately, TheMan was dead set against giving this any more than maybe a 1.5 and a couple other people sort of liked it, maybe, but on the average the response was rather luke warm.
Personally, I think they are all on drugs. Pope Hat Pinecone Takenokonosato Kuri are basically pinecone looking short breadish cookies with a maple like chocolatesque coating. The cookie part was texturally short bread down to the crumbly goodness. It was less thumpy than short bread, probably some sort of cookie with much less butter but still, it really felt like short bread when I munched on it. I’m a big fan of short bread, even in pinecone/pope hat form. The cookie was also a touch less flavorful than shortbread, but again, probably the lesser oil content can explain that away. Alessar remarked that the cookie tasted like a sugar cone and I’ll buy that.
The coating was probably chestnut flavored as it had a nice hint of nutty (and there are chestnuts on the box) but to all the pallets involved in tasting, it reminded them more of maple. There was also a hint of slick in the coating, perhaps due to the flavoring or perhaps the quality of the coating wasn’t up to snuff, but I didn’t think it detracted much. Some of my tasters were bothered by this, however so there you have it.
So to wrap up, and reiterate again that on a personal level I really liked these, I’m going to give Takenokonosato Kuri a
Rating of 3 Wasabi Peas out of a possible 5.
